History

Dr. Lorenz Teer

Click HERE to view a 1983 publication from The Hospital Connection of Dr. Lorenz Teer's personal story of Delhi Hospital.

Personal account of Dr. Lorenz Teer, co-founder of the Delhi Clinic and Sanitarium Published in The Hospital Connection, July 1983.

The hospital in Delhi was really conceived when I was interning at Charity Hospital in Shreveport in 1934. While making rounds, I discovered that about one half of the patients were from Delhi. I talked with the last one on rounds that day, who was Stella Lee and she told me she was from Delhi and I told her that I was coming to Delhi to start a hospital. At that time, Dr. Osric Armstrong, whose home was in Delhi, was interning with me at Charity. I talked with him and he told me that he did not desire to come back to Delhi, but thought it was a good location. He and I came to Delhi and spent the weekend with his family, and I talked with the doctors here then, Dr. Thompson, Dr. Collins, Dr. May, Dr. Dooley and also Same Mayes, who was the druggist at Thompsons Drugstore. They were all receptive to my moving here, and I felt it was a good location.

I moved into the Hall Hotel in August 1934, and from there started my practice. The first night, I heard whispering behind my back as I was eating supper. I looked around and there was Stella Lee talking to Mrs. Hall. She was telling Mrs. Hall “ yes ma’am, that’s the doctor that told me he was coming to Delhi to start a hospital” My brother, Dr. Sheldon Teer, was interning at Charity Hospital at this time and had about two years to go. He agreed that it would be a good thing for us to go together and start a hospital. This was called the Dehi Sanitarium and was connected to the clinic at that time.

The first hospital consisted of twelve beds. The nursing situation was taken care of by Mrs. Sheldon Teer, who was our day nurse and Mrs. Sylvia Cook, who was the night nurse. Those were the only two nurses that we had at that time, the nurses were on duty for 12 hours. The nurses were given living quarters in the hospital and Dr. Sheldon Teer and I with our wives also lived in the hospital at that time.

With Dr. Sheldon Teer as our chief surgeon, Mrs. Sheldon Teer as head of nurses, Mrs. Lorenz Teer as administrator, we continued until 1939, at which time Miss Pauline Gatlin was hired by us which increased our staff. Since that time, things have gradually grown. In 1942, my father, Dr. W.W. Teer, came and in 1947, Dr. Newell McElwee joined our staff.

In 1956, Dr. George Edwards came and stayed for a while and later returned and joined the partnership in 1959. Dr. Hugh C. Watson came in 1957, and in 1959 he was admitted to the partnership. Dr. Scurria came to Delhi in 1964, and was admitted to the partnership. Other physicians who came in, such as Dr. Carroll, Dr. Frank Cline, Dr. Abbott and Dr. Frank Reagar stayed only a short time.

Others who have been connected with our hospital have been Mrs. Lucy Finley, who was our anesthetist. She was helped later on by Mrs. Sylvia Cook, who we set to Chicago to study anesthesia. Miss Lorraine Lewis came later, and she went to New Orleans and studied anesthesia. Mrs. Black became our administrator later on, and later Mr. Cage McLemore took over the duties of administrator. The hospital gradually grew and we were seeing an average of 50,000 outpatients a year and delivering up to 400 babies per year.

In 1971, the people of Rayvile decided that they needed a hospital and asked us to cooperate. As the hospital here had gotten too large for us to manage, we promised to support a bond issue to build a hospital in Rayville, if they would in turn buy the Delhi Hospital and connect the two together. We had an offer from a private company to buy, but we thought it better for the people that the hospital belong to the parish. At that time, Richard Parish Hospitals were born.

So from a 12 bed hospital in a frame building started in 1936 by two doctors and their wives, the hospital has grown to be a part of the Richland Parish Hospitals, and the one at Delhi now has five doctors and 42 beds and is a big part of the economy of Richland Parish. (1983)